Johannes Lingelbach
(Dutch, 1622–1674)

Timeline

Lingelbach presumably received his training in Amsterdam, where his family settled in 1634. Houbraken mentions a visit to in 1642; this was one of the routes that Dutch painters took to , and the artist is recorded in Rome between 1647 and 1649. Leaving Rome the following year he arrived in Amsterdam in 1653 and spent the rest of his career there.

In the Eternal City Lingelbach joined the group of bamboccianti whose leader was Pieter van Laer. Confusion has arisen over the authorship of certain early works by Lingelbach, which were previously given to van Laer, and which depict the typical bamboccio subjects of Roman tradesmen and street life. Another candidate for Lingelbach's pre-1650 work has arisen in the character of the Master of the Trades. The next decade saw the creation of Lingelbach's undoubted masterpieces, Market in the Piazza Navona (Stadelisch Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt), Market in the Piazza del Popolo (Academie der Bildenden Kunste, Vienna) and Carnival (Kunsthistorishes Museum, Vienna), which depict the teeming, commercial life of Rome's great squares, depicted in a warm chiaroscuro with beautifully realised staffage.

Lingelbach's landscapes are therefore less characteristic, although this work demonstrates the artist's mastery of figure and animal painting, and his sensitivity to light.